The American Spectator : Centaurs, The Sphinx, and The Minotaur: Human-Animal Hybrids of Old

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Centaurs, The Sphinx, and The Minotaur: Human-Animal Hybrids of Old

By Margaret Moen on 8.6.09 @ 6:07AM

Mythology and science fiction give way to public policy.

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The Minotaur of Crete -- a human-bull hybrid -- reduced human beings to fodder by devouring Athenian youths and maidens imprisoned in his Labyrinth. The humans became the food of the inhuman.

Crete, according to the myth, held Athens as a vassal state and demanded that every year it send seven youths and seven maidens as a tribute. The young Athenians were locked in the Labyrinth and either starved or got eaten by the Minotaur.

He came by his cruelty through origins as vile as the Sphinx's. The god Poseidon gave Minos of Crete a beautiful white bull. Instead of sacrificing it to Poseidon as promised, however, Minos kept the bull and offered a lesser victim to the god. Poseidon retaliated by making Pasiphaë, Minos' wife, desire the bull. The Minotaur resulted from their union.

But human love defeated him. Theseus, a prince of Athens, volunteered to be one of the victims, and journeyed to Crete with the ill-fated others. In Crete, Minos' daughter, Ariadne, fell in love with Theseus and gave him a thread that would let him find his way out of the Labyrinth. Once inside, Theseus encountered the Minotaur and slew him.

With the thread, Theseus escaped from the Labyrinth and then sailed away with Ariadne and the intended Athenian victims.

Theseus defeated the Minotaur, the Lapiths defeated the Centaurs, and Oedipus defeated the Sphinx.

Human-animal hybrids must be defeated by legislation banning the practice. Senators Sam Brownback and Mary Landrieu on July 9 introduced such a ban. The measure parallels their 2007 bill, later introduced in the House by Congressman Chris Smith.

"Creating human-animal hybrids, which permanently alter the genetic makeup of an organism, will challenge the very definition of what it means to be human and is a violation of human dignity and a grave injustice," said Brownback.

Brownback's press release explained that the bill "only affects efforts to blur the genetic lines between animals and humans," and does not bar "the use of animals or humans in legitimate research or health care where genetic material is not passed on to future generations."

On April 30, 2008, in a statement supporting a U.S. human-animal hybrid ban, Cardinal Justin Rigali said: "While this subject may seem like science fiction to many, the threat is all too real. The United Kingdom is preparing to authorize the production of cloned human embryos using human DNA and animal eggs, setting the stage for the creation of embryos that are half-human and half-animal."

Rigali, chair of the U.S. bishops' Committee on Pro-Life Activities, added: "Researchers in New York have boasted of implanting 'mouse/human embryonic chimeras' into female mice, and California scientists say they may produce a mouse whose brain is entirely made up of human brain cells."

It is not science fiction. Nor it is mythology.

Page: < 12

topics:
Cloning, Sam Brownback

About the Author

Margaret Moen is an editor and freelance writer in St. Paul, Minnesota.

Letter to the Editor View all comments (20) | Leave a comment

Gill O’Teen ✝✡| 8.6.09 @ 10:12AM

I wonder if Doctor Moreau is selling beachfront property on his island.

Tim| 8.6.09 @ 11:26AM

It was a dry wind
And it swept across the desert
And it curled into the circle of birth
And the dead sand
Falling on the children
The mothers and the fathers
And the automatic earth
These are the days of miracle and wonder
This is the long distance call
The way the camera follows us in slo-mo
The way we look to us all
The way we look to a distant constellation
Thats dying in a corner of the sky
These are the days of miracle and wonder
And dont cry baby, dont cry
Dont cry

http://www.lyricsfreak.com/p/paul+simon/the+boy+in+the+bubble_20105881.html

L. Ross| 8.6.09 @ 11:32AM

I can't be the only person on this site to read about this genetic manipulation and think, "That is so cool!"

Tony in Central PA| 8.6.09 @ 1:39PM

" Cool ". I think that pretty much sums up the ethical profundity of this generation.

Notary Sojac| 8.6.09 @ 4:18PM

Take a good hard look at Henry Waxman, and try to tell me that human-animal hybridization isn't already underway.

Bill Pearce| 8.6.09 @ 5:06PM

Okay, What about going in the other direction. I have always wanted a talking cat.

On another point, Have you considered B. H. Obama could be a test-tube creature created for the Democrat Party after their first attempt ( Al Gore ) failed. Both are astonishing man-like creatures who can mimic liberalism / socialistic positions well past the point of sanity. I still think both models still have pronounced plastic sheen about them. I wonder what the next model will look like.

Polyester Mather D.D.| 8.7.09 @ 10:47PM

Doctor Moreau's New York Times economics column has been suspended on the grounds that his effort to clone Ben Stein constitutes a conflict of interest.

Espumpin| 8.8.09 @ 11:13AM

human-animal hybrids, Second Temple, Global Warming, Titan, Etc...... Existence is a jigsaw puzzle with an infinite number of pieces. By making assumptions we place a finite limit on the number of pieces, ignoring the existence of the remainder. Both science and religion, are guilty of this.

Truthteller| 8.9.09 @ 3:10PM

I lean more towards establishing a definition of a being that deserves civil rights as a citizen . We need that anyway, with the existing schism between those that view children in the womb as such beings and those who do not. Such a definition could include human-animal hybrids, I suppose.

Suppose we can isolate an anti-malaria gene in chimps which can immunize us? Would this legislation prevent that?

Read Heinlein's 1947 short story Jerry was a Man.

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